NATION/WORLD The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 14, 2004 - 9 .Iraqi administration leaders target of violence BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide car-bomber killed a dozen people yes- terday near a U.S. garrison in Baghdad and gunmen assassinated a senior Edu- cation Ministry official in a day that also included a rocket attack on the Green Zone housing the U.S. adminis- tration and ambushes around the capi- tal. A U.S. helicopter crashed, but the crew survived. Two other top Iraqi officials narrowly escaped death in what appears to be a campaign to target key figures in the new Iraqi administration as it prepares to take power June 30. Al-Jazeera televi- sion reported that a professor of geogra- phy at Baghdad University was shot and killed yesterday as he walked along a street nearthe campus. The upsurge in violence in the capi- tal occurred as fighting broke out yes- terday around the Taji air base on the northern edge of the city. An American soldier was killed and two others were wounded during an ambush north of Taji, the command said. One assailant was also killed. TASERS Continued from Page 2 after the shock. "At 26 watts, that's no longer an option available to anybody," he said. "Their pain threshold is basi- cally irrelevant." Although the stun guns have become increasingly popular in recent months, with 4,500 law- enforcement agencies now using or testing them, some have expressed concern over their safety. In the past month, police agencies in Georgia's Macon and Forsythe counties have suspended the use of Tasers following several deaths involving the devices. A U.S. Army OH-58 helicopter crashed near Taji later yesterday, but the two-member crew survived "in good condition," the U.S. command said. The cause of the crash and whether it was related to the fighting was unclear, but the U.S. command said there was no indication the aircraft was shot down. After sundown, U.S. troops attacked insurgents trying to plant a roadside bomb near the same location as the morning ambush, killing one person, wounding two others and destroying four vehicles, U.S. authorities said. Also in Baghdad, at least six peo- ple, including three Shiite militiaman, died in overnight clashes with U.S. troops in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood, Sheik Hassan al- Edhari, an aide to radical cleric Muq- tada al-Sadr, said yesterday. The suicide attack near the U.S. Army's Camp Cuervo in eastern Bagh- dad was the 15th car-bombing in Iraq since the start of the month, U.S. offi- cials said. The 12 dead included four policemen, officials said, but there were no American casualties. Thirteen Iraqis were injured in the blast, which occurred about 9:15 a.m. after police flagged down a vehicle traveling on the wrong side of the road. The driver detonated the explosives as police approached. Kamal al-Jarah, 63, the Education Ministry official in charge of contacts with foreign governments and the United Nations, was fatally shot early yesterday outside his home in the city's Ghazaliya district, a predomi- nantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein had been strong. Al-Jarah's death occurred one day after Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Bassam Salih Kubba, was mortally wounded in another Sunni neighbor- hood while driving to work. The For- eign Ministry blamed Saddam loyalists for the killing. The violence in the capital, nearly two weeks before the formal end of the U.S.- led occupation, stunned the interim gov- ernment, which had hoped to gain "These assasinations are an attempt to stop the march of Iraq toward complete sovereignty." - Hakim al-Hasni Industry Minister of Iraq public support as the legitimate repre- ment figures who are well protected, sentatives of the Iraqi nation. the insurgents appear to be targeting "These assassinations are an attempt middle and upper level officials who to stop the march of Iraq toward com- lack adequate security. plete sovereignty," Industry Minister In Washington, Secretary of State Hakim al-Hasni told Al-Arabiya televi- Colin Powell said U.S. forces would do sion. "They are not a resistance because everything they can to "try to defeat they are resisting their own people. They these murderers." However, Powell told are killing the highly qualified people. "FOX News Sunday" that "it's hard to What kind of a resistance is this?" protect an entire goverment." During a visit yesterday to a new Underscoring those difficulties, a crossing point along the Iranian border, rocket exploded yesterday in the interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Green Zone, causing minor damage his Cabinet was "discussing serious and to the Republican Palace where drastic measures once sovereignty is U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer transferred to take against terrorists and maintains his offices. No casualties those trying to undermine the progress were reported, but U.S. Apache of Iraq." He did not elaborate. attack helicopters roamed the skies Rather than going after top govern- overhead looking for the assailants. I Several state chapters of the Amer- ican Civil Liberties Union have called for tighter regulations on the use of Tasers, and the national organ- ization officially opposes any police use of nonlethal weapons except as a substitute for lethal force. Represen- tatives from the campus ACLU chap- ter declined to comment on the phone. Baird dismissed such concerns. "It was a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction and an overreaction," he said, noting that no death has ever been attributed directly to a Taser. Baird said most fatalities that occur after the use of a Taser are attributed to either heart problems or drug overdoses. The Taser, he said, could not be blamed for deaths resulting from such problems. Since it incapacitates suspects without raising their heart rates, Baird said the device has likely saved lives by making a physical struggle - which can cause a heart attack in some cases - unnecessary. Baird said the Taser has been used in the field by AAPD officers "six or seven times" so far, with only 15 devices currently in rotation. The officers who have used them, he said, have been pleased with the results. "It's been very effective at con- trolling the person, and yet we haven't hurt anybody," Baird said. II t A'.STHMNA I RESEARCH) ,\ STUDY'/ Doctors in the area are conducting a research study to test the safety and effectiveness of an investigational medication in the treatment of asthma. You may be eligible for the study if: " You are at least 18 years old " You are generally healthy with the diagnosis of persistent asthma " You can manage your asthma symptoms safely with regular use of albuterol only [ You have not been a smoker within the past year " Study-related assessments, albuterol inhalers, and investigational medication at no charge. " Compensation: up to $520 for completion of 10 visits over 7 months. 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